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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Muslim Friday Call To Prayer To Sound At Duke University, NC

Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has decided that all students Muslims and non-Muslims alike will get to listen to the Friday call to prayer. They'll get that pleasure commencing this Friday.

Members of the Duke Muslim Students Association will chant the call, known as adhan or azan, from the Duke Chapel bell tower each Friday at 1 p.m. The call to prayer will last about three minutes and be “moderately amplified,” officials said in a statement Tuesday.

“The adhan is the call to prayer that brings Muslims back to their purpose in life, which is to worship God, and serves as a reminder to serve our brothers and sisters in humanity,” said Imam Adeel Zeb, Muslim chaplain at Duke. “The collective Muslim community is truly grateful and excited about Duke’s intentionality toward religious and cultural diversity.”

This from Christy Lohr Sapp, the associate dean for religious life at the Duke Chapel.

“This opportunity represents a larger commitment to religious pluralism that is at the heart of Duke’s mission." “It connects the university to national trends in religious accommodation.”